SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION OF MECHANICS AND ARTISANS. 187 



"wages of skill. This is distributed among tlie workmen employed, in 

 proi^ortiou to their respective degrees of skill. He wbo can work ouly 

 as a journey men under the direction of others, or who can i)erform but 

 a single and not very difficult process in a complicated piece of work, 

 receives a somewhat higher compensation than he would get for carry- 

 ing a hod or shovelling earth, and this slight advance is the price of the 

 imperfect training and the moderate degree of brainpower which he 

 puts into his work. He, on the other hand, who understands every 

 part of. his business, who can knowingly direct the labors of others, 

 who can insure for the articles of his manufacture the highest reputa- 

 tion, and can be relied on for the fulfillmeut of his contracts, can ob- 

 tain a price fully proportioned to his superior skill and ability. His in- 

 come is a compensation for the amount of labor which his skill super- 

 sedes. A part of the saving inures, indeed, to the public iu the cheap- 

 ening of the commodities produced, but a large portion becomes the 

 legitimate recompense of his own skill. Competition will prevent his 

 receiving more than he fairly merits. The master-machinist or manu- 

 facturer, who has some hundreds of operatives under his employ, even 

 though he have twice or three times the salary of the governor or chief 

 justice of the State, earns all that is paid to him, and is at the same 

 time a public benefactor to a very large extent ; for the commodities 

 that he furnishes would, under a less skillful superintendence, be pro- 

 duced at a much greater cost. But for skill like his, clothing and fur- 

 niture, that are now within every one's reach, would be too expensive 

 for the means of any save the richest purchasers. 



But this skill, except in the rarest instances of mechanical genius, 

 is to be acquired by education alone, and not by the mere training of 

 the hand, but equally of the brain. The skilled laborer cannot dispense 

 with the knowledge of chemistry, physics, and mathematics. By chem- 

 istry he must learn the properties of materials, their proportions and 

 laws of combination, the action upon them of oxygen and hydrogen, of 

 heat, light, and electricity. By physics he must become acquainted with 

 the mechanical powers, the strength of materials, the effect of friction, 

 the constants and variables which must always be taken into the ac- 

 count to prevent either the deficiency or the waste of force. But physics 

 is a mathematical science, and chemistry has become one; indeed, till 

 it was one, it hardly merited the name of science. Without a very 

 thorough mathematical training, neither chemistry nor physics can be 

 so understood that the artisan can have a lair command of his mate- 

 rials, instruments, and forces ; can meet unexpected exigencies ; can avail 

 himself understandiugly of improved processes ; can calculate results, 

 economize resources, and give his products their highest degree of per- 

 fection. Then, too, the skilled artisan needs general culture. He is to 

 conduct correspondence, to treat on equal terms with men of intelli- 

 gence and education, to maintain in society a position worthy of re- 

 spect and confidence, to do his part toward raising his special caUing to 



